


Sunset

by lutece



Category: Fallout 4
Genre: F/M, Family Fluff, Gen, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-25
Updated: 2016-01-25
Packaged: 2018-05-14 23:53:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5763754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lutece/pseuds/lutece
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lola brings synth Shaun home to Danse.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sunset

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



Sturges suggested Danse tune up his power armour to offset the nerves he was experiencing, so it was by the steel frame of his bulking suit that he worked, oil-faced, grease-stained, until the warm sun started setting on the horizon. The trepidation he was feeling echoed more strongly inside of him than the time Cambridge Police Station had been overrun and bombarded by feral ghouls–and what for? _Only the little boy that Lo’s torn the Commonwealth apart for_ , Danse’s conscience said. _You’re right to be nervous._

He was wiping his sweaty brow with the back of his big wrist when he spotted a familiar figure, and a little one, coming down the fractured main road of Sanctuary. “Hey, big guy,” Sturges said, clapping his hand on Danse’s shoulder. “Looks like it’s time to pack up.” At Danse’s muscles twitching below his palm, the other man laughed, in a good-natured way. “You’ll be fine, partner. Trust me.”

The former Paladin took a long breath through his nose, released a drawn-out exhale, and nodded to himself. Only a boy, the logical side of him said. He’d experienced much worse in his rigorous training from his apparent youth–most were false memories, but he could remember the effort all the same.

“ _Lo_ –Lola,” Danse greeted, when his girlfriend met him halfway. 

The amber gold of the sun’s rays made Lola’s hair look like molten gold, short and melting prettily against her crown; she looked tired, but happy. She was glowing because of the tiny person shy against her side, holding her hand tight. Beside her, a little boy in a striped black-and-white shirt, neatly-cuffed jeans, and sneakers, with hair just as molten gold as Lola’s, stared with wide eyes up at Danse’s big figure. 

He was casting a shadow that dwarfed them both. Lola smiled, tugged at Shaun’s tiny hand gently, and bent to address him first. “Shaun, I want you to meet someone very special to momma,” she said, and the boy paid her full attention. “This is Danse, remember I told you about him, and how mommy loves him? We’ve all been waiting for so long for you to meet everyone. Well…”

She straightened and pushed Shaun very gingerly forward, hands clasping at his small shoulders. Danse blinked, stiff, straining his neck to look down at the child, as Shaun strained his neck staring back up at him. 

“Hi, Mr Danse, sir,” Shaun said, slowly, avoiding a stutter. He was just as nervous as Danse was, no doubt intimidated; it was his first time out in the wasteland, properly, Danse realised. 

It made Danse feel bolder. They were both synths, too, though the boy didn’t know himself–Lola had been distraught at first telling him such news about Shaun first, but she’d coaxed it into Danse, over time, that he was just as real as she was–she’d do the same for her beloved son if it ever arose. The love between them made it so, and now Danse knew, sharing a happy glance with Lola, that Shaun would hammer it into him even more.

He decided on crouching after a brief, pregnant pause. Level with Shaun, he looked down at the latter’s hand, and stuck his own, massive one out. 

“Hey, soldier,” he said with a smile. “It’s nice to meet you.” He froze, when he realised how automatic the soldier part sounded coming out of his mouth.

Shaun’s face, however, lit up at being called such a thing. He was a little boy, just as adventurous, just as humoured as any child would be, after all. When Shaun smiled wide, his teeth showed like Lola’s did when she was happy, too; he took Danse’s paw, shook it happily, then stepped back and gave him a quick salute, shyness gone. “Danse, sir!”

Lola gave an outburst of a laugh, that made Danse’s cheeks flush pink to a degree. He hadn’t heard her laugh so happily and heartily in a while. “You don’t have to call me that, Shaun,” he told the boy, but he knew it was part of a game. A goofy grin came to his face, one of his rare ones; he stood, ruffled Shaun’s hair on some strange instinct, and felt his heart expand ten times at feeling Shaun rock up into his touch. “Your mother’s told me so much about you, Shaun. How you’re brave and strong, just like her.” Shaun put his hands behind his back and returned to Lola’s side, rubbing his cheek at her arm.

Danse thought the sight the sweetest he had seen since… the morning he had first woken up with Lola, he supposed. Her soft skin pressed to his, her complete trust in him to keep her safe, her selfless love for him. A paternal feeling he had never experienced before swelled up in his chest. “I hope we can be friends,” he added. 

Shaun nodded and swung at Lola’s arm idly. “I know you will be,” Lola said. “Of course you will be. My–boys.” 

* * *

“I like him, momma,” Shaun told Lola later, when mother and son sat staring at the stream behind the half-repaired houses of Sanctuary. He was cross-legged between her own legs, playing with her wedding ring; she’d looped her arms around him. Lola liked to keep him close, now she had her baby back, in whatever form he came in. “Mr Danse, I mean. He’s good. He’s funny. I don’t know if he can dance very well, though. I’ll have to investigate like Mr Valentine does.” 

Lola turned her head and saw Danse working on his power armour again with intent. He would join them soon enough, when he wasn’t so shy again. 

She nodded to herself, kissed Shaun’s blonde head, and squeezed him gently. When he giggled, she smiled. “I like him too, Shaun,” she agreed.


End file.
